Why You Should Follow: This Long Beach, CA, indie rock quartet recently announced plans to release a “big rock record” in January — with help from Kings of Leon producer Jacquire King. Some fans have been skeptical — tweeting their worries about a more mainstream sound — but as the band members themselves put it, “Fear not. Fugazi is big rock in our book. We shan’t disappoint.” In addition to tweeting back and forth with fans, the group uses Twitter to support their favorite bands (“good day for new albums; Grindermen, Walkmen, Black Mountain. Get out to the record store, son!”), brag about the concerts they’re going to see (“Anybody ever heard of arcade fire? Scored some tix to see em in a lil town called big sur. Hey jealousy!”), and pose interesting questions for their followers (“What founding father would you not want to share a cab ride with the most?”). Follow them as they discuss their favorite live records, enjoy the never-ending “bikini weather” in California, wonder what a “serious note” sounds like, and get ready to release Mine is Yours and hit the road.

Best Tweet of the Week: “Ha. Cross our hearts, hope to die,” in response to a fan’s tweet about the new album: “It better not have any songs about ‘using somebody.'”

Why You Should Follow: This zany singer-songwriter — best known for his tongue-in-cheek hip-hop songs, Ron Jeremy-like persona, and naked live shows — understands the value of a witty tweet. Whether he’s making a cultural observation (“One thing I’m missing from the rescue footage of the Chilean miners is that Green Day ‘Time of Your Life’ song”), a teenage boy joke (“I heard Marie Callender’s is having an Any Hole pie sale. Now this I have to see. Am I right?”), or a silly pun (“It takes a village to raise a boner”), his tweets are often worth re-tweeting. He leads an interesting life — going on Zombie Pub Crawls, hanging out with celebrities, taking drugs he doesn’t know how to spell (“#adderall #aderol #aderall”) — and he shares all sorts of crazy stories, from finding a cringe-worthy Gerard Butler fan letter to delivering “a beautiful Asian baby boy” (no word on whether that actually happened or not). He riffs on everything from America’s Next Top Model (“I used to be fierce, but in the later years of modeling career I’ve become all barf and no bite”) to Twitter itself (“I experienced the LA rainbow because so many people tweeted about it. That’s showbiz”), and isn’t afraid to get dirty with his tweets (“What should I eat at the Austin airport? #BesidesTheObvious #pussy”).

Best Tweet of the Week: “So it’s National Coming Out Day AND Columbus Day today. Maybe we could shorten it to Coming to America Day. Or just Avatar.”

Why You Should Follow: The Cape Town, South Africa, hip-hop trio just hit a major breakthrough — they re-released their 2009 MP3 album $O$ through Interscope Records, positioning them for the sort of mainstream success they haven’t yet seen. While their Twitter page is mostly news and updates (written in a sort of accented English that includes lots of “fok”s instead of “fuck”s and “jou”s instead of “you”s), they also offer tiny glimpses into their crazy, jet-setting lives — they tweet about accidentally getting kicked by back-up dancers on stage, running into B-Real from Cypress Hill at a “take-away munchie stoner shop in Amsterdam,” getting stuck in Japanese traffic jams, searching for Polish swear words, and getting “TOTALLY DAZED & FOKKEN CONFUSED.”

Best Tweet of the Week: “Yo-landi flashes her tits for the first time and suddenly everyone has a fokken freak out like they have never seen real tits before.”

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Alessandro Cortini tends to surround himself with darkness. The Italian producer is most infamous as a torturer of modular synths and other bleak electronics for Los Angeles’ most famous industrial-goths, Nine Inch Nails. His previous solo LP, Sonno, slinked out on Prurient’s Hospital Productions — a bastion of the crepuscular, if there ever was one. And… More »